“Start Quote

There are still so many questions that need to be answered and that clearly haven't been”

End QuoteTim RogersFormer BBC Wales reporter

Tim Rogers, a former BBC Wales reporter who met Lynette White just months before she was murdered and who covered her murder trial, described the trial's collapse as "a dreadful day for British justice".

Mr Rogers told BBC Radio Wales: "There are still so many questions that need to be answered and that clearly haven't been."

Mr Rogers said it could not be right that the trial had collapsed "because of incompetence".

"Those who stood trial themselves wouldn't want a case like this to come to a conclusion like that," he said. "They would want to be completely vindicated.

"I think there has to be [a public inquiry]. It's an appalling case and it's gone on for far too long."

Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg also questioned the handling of the case.

"Nobody would say this is a satisfactory way of handling a criminal trial," he said.

“Start Quote

People will be asking how do the South Wales Police become accountable for what appears to be a severe abuse of process”

End QuoteJohn WilliamsFormer South Wales Police head of CID

"You would have thought that given that this was an unsolved murder for that period of time, that the police would have carefully held on to all the information they had during that time."

"You would have thought that in a case like this they would have been very careful to keep everything."

Mr Rozenberg backed calls for an inquiry, saying: "The question is whether it's a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service or indeed for the police in Wales.

"The question really is whether the police have behaved appropriately in terms of their disclosure of evidence and indeed before that in terms of their destruction of evidence."

'Implications'

The South Wales Police Federation welcomed the acquittal, saying the retired police officers had endured an "absolute nightmare" of being on bail, awaiting trial.

"The sense of relief which these officers must now be feeling will be overwhelming and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for presenting such a professional approach to what has been a most depressing and life-changing process," it said.

John Williams, the former head of South Wales CID who led the original murder investigation, said there was a need to "find some accountability" from South Wales Police.

Mr Williams, who explained he had attended the trial in Swansea to support his colleagues in the dock, said: "People will be asking how do the South Wales Police become accountable for what appears to be a severe abuse of process resulting in a massive spend of money."

He added: "[The inquiry] will have implications beyond the police force because it's all about disclosure of evidence, and it seems that the way that evidence was disclosed is not in a proper manner and there's an abuse of process somewhere down the way.

BBC links

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